Where highbrow meets lowbrow and has a cocktail on the beach. A guide to what is hot and what is not on the Brighton (UK) music, art, festivals, museums and literary scene.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Le Scandal @ Udderbelly

Went to see the New York burlesque troupe Le Scandal at the Udderbelly last night. Ten thirty on a bank holiday Monday night is probably not the perfect time to see them but i didn't have work in the morning so it was ok. It was also the first night of a run with quite a lot riding on it.

The house band were from Brighton but the performers all looked like people from the weirder side of Manhattan. There were a couple of ladies who did various fan dances, a (not very good) juggler, an escapologist, a rope act and a sex monkey. The rope act were probably the best part of the show. It was a woman and two men with lots of climbing ropes, hanging from ropes and spinning round on ropes. The whole show had a sort of vaudeville feel with a slight industrial/alternative undercurrent. Most of the audience were given kazoos when the went in and proceeded to join in with most of the tunes. A couple of ladies even won sets of "Paisties" in a sex quiz.

The person I went with thought it was a bit of a shambles but I thought that was all part of its charm/act. The big infaltable cow is probably not the best place to see something like that as the Spiegeltent (or a dingy NY night club) would have had more atmosphere. Not bad though.